Yes. Can you suggest any other plan?—I know of none. BURGOMASTER. I found a pretext for looking in at the town engineer’s this morning, and—in a half-jesting way—I mentioned these alterations as things we might possibly have to consider, at some future time. DR. STOCKMANN. At some future time! BURGOMASTER. Of course he smiled at what he thought my extravagance. Have you taken the trouble to think what your proposed alterations would cost? From what the engineer said, I gathered that the expenses would probably mount up to several hundred thousand crowns. DR. STOCKMANN. So much as that? BURGOMASTER. Yes. But that is not the worst. The work would take at least two years. DR. STOCKMANN. Two years! Do you mean to say two whole years? BURGOMASTER. At least. And what are we to do with the Baths in the meanwhile? Are we to close them? We should have no alternative. Do you think any one would come here, if it got abroad that the water was pestilential? DR. STOCKMANN. But, Peter, that’s precisely what it is. BURGOMASTER. And all this now, just now, when the Baths are doing so well! Neighbouring towns, too, are not without their claims to rank as health-resorts. Do you think they would not at once set to work to divert the full stream of visitors to themselves? Undoubtedly they would; and we should be left stranded. We should probably have to give up the whole costly undertaking; and so you would have ruined your native town. DR. STOCKMANN. I—ruined——! BURGOMASTER. It is only through the Baths that the town has any future worth speaking of. You surely know that as well as I do. DR. STOCKMANN. Then what do you think should be done? BURGOMASTER. I have not succeeded in convincing myself that the condition of the water at the Baths is as serious as your statement represents. DR. STOCKMANN. I tell you it’s if anything worse—or will be in the summer, when the hot weather sets in. BURGOMASTER. I repeat that I believe you exaggerate greatly. A competent physician should know what measures to take—he should be able to obviate deleterious influences, and to counteract them in case they should make themselves unmistakably felt. DR. STOCKMANN. Indeed—? And then—? BURGOMASTER.